Apple CEO Tim Cook talks about meeting Trump to his employees

In a leaked meeting with the Apple employees, obtained by Techcrunch, Tim Cook talked about why he met with President-ElectDonald Trump last Wednesday. He also spoke about the future of the company, especially regarding the desktop market and upcoming projects to be specified.

Along with Cook, a significant number of CEOs, COOs and remarkable businesspeople in America like Elon Tusk from Tesla, Jeff Bezos from Amazon and Larry Page from Alphabet, among others, encountered President-Elect Trump and Vice President-Elect Mike Pence to talk about employment in America and productivity policies in the country.

In an extensive interview with The Washington Post, Tim Cook discussed the future of the company and the dropping incomes that the iPhone is getting since last year. Photo credit: The Washington Post

Is Apple leaving the desktop world?

In a Q&A session with Apple’s employees, Tim Cook was asked about several things that could shape what the tech company will do and be in the near future. During the last months, there has been a feeling regarding the possibility of Apple abandoning the desktop world and focusing in the mobile device market.

There are enough reasons to think that the fact that Apple may surrender in the desktop field could be true. Last October, at the Apple event, the company presented the MacBook Pro laptop, and yet again, didn’t launch any updates to their desktop devices.

In fact, their desktop flagship, the iMac, was launched in 2013 and even when it is powerful and efficient in most aspects it has not receive an update since that year. The last iMac update was in 2015 while the MacMini was updated in 2014, but the lack of iMac updates has not been unimportant to users and media.

In the middle of all this general concern, Cook took the time to explain to his employees about this issue when he was asked by the personnel: “We had a big MacBook Pro launch in October and a powerful upgrade to the MacBook back in the spring. Are iMac desktops strategic for us?”

He proceeded to explain why he thinks that the desktop market is not forfeitable for Apple. He says in the interview that considering the media have been asking a lot about Apple’s commitment to the desktop world, he thinks is necessary to be very clear when stating that there are “great desktops” in Apple’s roadmaps that will be coming soon. He advised his employees not to worry about this matter.

Cook explained to the employees that he considers desktops an important aspect of Apple objectives and goals because he sees desktops as a very strategic field.

“It’s unique compared to the notebook because you can pack a lot more performance in a desktop — the largest screens, the most memory and storage, a greater variety of I/O, and fastest performance. So there are many different reasons why desktops are really important, and in some cases critical, to people,” Cook wrote in the employee message board this Monday about the competitive advantages of the desktop.

Another interesting thing that Cook respond was about what is Apple’s biggest differentiator and how can employees advance into those efforts. The Executive Chief first said what every CEO would say when asked that question: that the people and the culture are the basis of all the hard work and success. However, he adds something about a “change of the world” mindset of the employees and that that must be one of the reasons of Apple’s boldness.

He talked about how there are no limits regarding what Apple can or cannot do. He says that when an employee is interested in another completely different industry, the employee would “pull the strings” toward Apple and will elaborate something incredible, as he put an example of the fitness world and the subsequent ResearchKit and CareKit.

He stated how maybe sometimes the Apple developers and even himself are not sure regarding what direction a product can take. He also explained how exactly the launching of a project could lead the product to places that were unimaginable at the very beginning, and so that might be Apple’s key to success.

Why did Cook meet with Trump?

iI the Q&A session, Cook also explained to the employees the reason for his attendance.

He talked about how the relationship that a company has with its government is vital to the development of that company, as the government could approve or disapprove a series of policies that might be both positive or negative regarding the enterprise interests.

He then explained why he thought it was important to engage and discuss problems that affect both parties, government and companies.

“You don’t change things by just yelling. You change things by showing everyone why your way is the best. In many ways, it’s a debate of ideas. We very much stand up for what we believe in. We think that’s a key part of what Apple is about. And we’ll continue to do so,” Cook wrote in the Q&A session with Apple employees.